Central Park's moral and economic value

Recently I produced a paper about the foundations of the well known New York Central Park. You'll be amazed when you realise how many cultural, moral, social and economic factors contributed to the creation of this place of recreation and leisure. Besides the obvious recreational purpose it served (mind you, the famous baseball game, or any other kind of active leisure was strictly forbidden) its construction was sponsored by different interest groups.

The New York elite saw that the construction of a park near or on their land would surely rise land prices. A large struggle emerged early in the 1850's between various elites about the location of the park, its size and how much the adjacent landowners should pay to this public improvement of living space (so called assessment politics). Some downtown elite contested the idea of a city park, because they would reap no benefit of it and were forced to pay for it through public taxes.

Apart from this economic dimension, and the obvious cultural and prestige arguments that also supported the park movement, it also carried out a moralistic agenda. This agenda was mainly set by the elite and entrepreneurs (like shop keepers, doctors, lawyers) over concern of the workers and immigrants. New York, like any industrial town saw a rapid population growth in the nineteenth century: from 60.000 inhabitants in 1800 to 700.000 in 1850. This uncontrollable growth together with various epidemics, economic crisis and a growning number of poor city dwellers called for action; Moral reform of the poor! In those days being poor was recognized as a individual failure of caracter, curable by moral reform.

But how could a city park contribute to this moral reform of the poor? simply by opening its gates to all. A mixture of elites and other wealthy citizens together with the poor would help to show the wretched dwellers how they should behave. The park's design also contributed to the moral uplifting of the workers. Olmsted and Vaux (the two main architects of the park) both integrated their believe of the curing and cleansing power of nature in Central Parks' design.

So next time you step onto the grounds of your nearby citypark, remember there is more to it then mere beauty or its function as a recreational ground, its morally uplifting. Open yourself to the cleansing power of nature, and let your city soul be cleared of morally wrongness!